Here's an idea.
Going to see "Ender's Game" might be a political action.
"Ender's Game" is the story of battle school genius
Ender Wiggin and his preternatural strategic
abilities.
It's a tough coming of age sci-fi novel.
And though it takes place in the super future,
there's a good many recognizable moments
from everyone's childhood, like the time you broke that kids
arm in zero g.
Ah, memories.
The book's author, Orson Scott Card,
dreamed up Ender during the '70s,
and the book was eventually published in 1985.
It became hugely popular and was awarded both the Hugo
and Nebula Awards, science fiction writing's two
most distinguished honors.
For about the last 10 or more years,
a movie adaptation has been in production cryostasis.
But as of November 1, "Ender's Game,"
staring Asa Butterfield and Harrison Ford,
was finally released.
On the one hand, there are many reasons
to be very excited about the rendering
of this book, a piece of sci-fi cannon,
in modern cinematic glory.
But on the other hand, there's a reason to not be excited.
Namely, it's Orson Scott Card himself.
To describe some of his personal politics as controversial
would be a bit of an understatement.
In 1990, he said that homosexuality
should be illegal, and in 2008, said
that it only exists as a result of quote
"a tragic genetic mix up."
This year, he said that President Obama
is quote "by character and preference, a dictator,"
and in 2007 suggested that there is
media conspiracy to suppress scientific evidence disproving
global warming.
As you might imagine, this has led a good number of people
to consider "Ender's Game" in a different light.
Now in our Evangelion episode, we
talked about the ideas of the author
when interpreting a work.
There's a lot going on in "Ender's Game"
and much we could read into, like "Ender's Game" has
Mormon literature as deification of the young
or a reflection on technology as dangerous abstraction
or a thief of childhood.
But there is no overt anti-queer or problematic
political message insofar as you don't
consider-- no spoilers-- what happens at the end political.
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
even reviewed the screenplay and found nothing troubling.
Costar Harrison Ford said that it
was quote "a very impressive active imagination that Card
could predict the internet, that he could predict drone warfare.
There is nothing in the film or book addressing
his current dispositions, or prejudices."
However that doesn't mean that the connection
between the movie, Orson Scott Card, who is a producer on it,
though the idea he will profit significantly
is disputed-- link's in the doobly do--
and his politics doesn't leave some people
asking if maybe they should use their dollars elsewhere.
Skipendersgame.com which is maintained
by Geeks Out, a queer geek advocacy group,
reflects the feelings of a lot of people
when they say that Orson Scott Card has every right
to express his opinions, but absolutely no
right to our money.
If you do not support his views or his extreme agenda,
do not support them by buying a ticket to "Ender's Game."
In other words, by supporting the movie,
you are supporting Card and implicitly supporting
his views.
We've seen more than a few examples of this kind of thing
this year alone.
The CEO Barilla Pasta recently said
that only traditional families should
consume his mass produced unleavened dough shapes.
Many bars and patrons are boycotting Russian vodka
due to the countries intolerance towards the queer community.
Chick-Fil-A's CEO recently spoke out against gay marriage,
and Jelly Bellies' Chairman of the Board
gives to an anti-trans organization.
[SIGH]
When a fundamental disagreement between producer and consumer
arises, it can feel hypocritical to support the continued
success of that producer.
And since, for most people, there is no inherent message
in jelly beans or pasta, it can be surprisingly when they
are suddenly burned with one.
And weirdly, though we are totally familiar with the idea
of media or artworks having an explicit meaning or message,
depictions of and reactions to the world
are inherently ideological right?
That meaning could absolutely be hijacked
by the politics of the creator, like with Mel Gibson or Ezra
Pound, and then you're like, ooh, no thanks.
Implied here is the idea that those
who do not align with your politics
should not be allowed success.
But even if ticket or admission prices, company
or personnel gains do not directly
fund aims you don't claim, you should not deign to pay,
which says really a fair amount about how
we think of our money.
It implies that we should or should
aim to give money only to things with politics
similar to our own or to things that are smart enough
to be without politics.
It implies that our dollars are ideological or political
upvotes, and that spending is an inherently political action,
which it is.
It's capital P Political when you
use that money to support a political party
or political cause.
But for better or worse, it's lowercase p, politics,
like the maintenance and distribution of power
in basically every other situation in which it's used.
It's when a critical mass of people
decide that monetary support provides
a damaging amount of political support
that a boycott can happen.
The question then is how damaging
will political support shown by going to go
see "Ender's Game" really be?
Rachel Edidin in writing for "Wired" sees plenty of reason
to abstain.
She writes that "neither fiction nor its creators
exist in a vacuum, nor is the decision
to consume art or support artists morally neutral.
Orson Scott Card is monstrously homophobic.
He's racist and advocates violence
and lobbies against fundamental human rights."
In other words, giving any credence or credit to his work
could be seen as a super problematic.
On the other hand Diane Anderson Mitchell,
Editor At Large for advocate.com says
that by not seeing "Ender's Game,"
you might be doing more harm than good.
She writes that the makers of the film and cast and crew,
and probably most people involved in the "Ender's Game"
film, hold views contrary to Card's.
We shouldn't penalize them for the idiocy
of one man who created the source material nearly three
decades ago, especially given that the message of the film
is at such odds with that man's own homophobia.
And therein lies the most interesting tidbit.
At its heart without giving anything away,
"Ender's Game" really is about the dangers of a one size
fits all political mentality of marching in lockstep
with the heavily mediated that's is quote "of remaining
resolutely and purposefully opposed to
tolerance" to hearing the other side out.
Is it perhaps the best possible outcome
if "Ender's Game" becomes a long term smash success, confronting
millions of people with these very ideas,
even if it means we are in fact implicitly supporting
Card in the process?
What do you guys think?
Did or will Orson Scott Card's politics factor
into your decision to go see "Ender's Game?"
Let us know in the comments.
And I'm pretty sure one of the solutions
to a puzzle in the giants drink, is
to subscribe to Idea Channel.
(SINGING) I just died in your arms tonight.
Because you're the Slender Man.
Let's see what you guys have to say about him and folk lore.
Draco Alexander write basically a term paper
in the comments, which is a really interesting
and calls into question the authenticity or meaningfulness
of the internet as a document, and along the way
also mentions the SEP foundation which
is a thing I just found out about and am slowly
working my way through.
There's a lot there, and yes it deserved a mention
and it's very creepy.
To JC19021, no, I blatantly borrowed it from Wheezy Waiter
and I send him $1 every time I use it so officially licensed
doobly doo.
God, I owe a dollar.
To Fuzunga, I totally forgot about Candlehack
and how the hilarious it is that when
people start talking about him, their sentences just kind of--
Mysterygirl154 tells us about her favorite Preview Pasta
which is about the roof jumper you can only
escape from by going into a small room with no windows.
What if you don't have a small room with no windows?
There are windows everywhere in my house,
what am I going to do?
Sophoslife's favorites Preview Pasta
is on Been Downed and majority mass,
which is yes it's about a haunted cartridge, highly
recommended.
There's some creepy YouTube videos.
We'll put some links in the doobly doo.
God, Crank is making a mint off of me.
Vvbb18 complimented us on the use of the Wilhelm scream.
Full credit for that goes to producer Andrew.
It was his idea, totally nailed it.
And here he is.
Sugowaybaka's comment about short horror stories
make me wonder if there are short horror vines, which
if there aren't, it seems like that's an untapped market
that someone needs to get on.
Field4242 and a couple of other people
pointed us towards Hero Brian, which
is the kind of resident slender man from Minecraft, which
I had never heard about, and is really interesting
and super scary.
Thanks for pointing that one out.
And finally to Bryan Bray and everybody
who participated in whatever it is
you call this when this happens, I
feel like we don't tell you guys enough
that you are the best comments section in all of YouTube.
So thank you for making it both fun and educational
and actually having awesome conversations
and doing fun things like this.
I don't know where it ended up, but I'm just
going to guess that I'm not your dog, mate.
This week's episode was brought to you
by the hard work of these battle school graduates.
We have a subreddit and an IRC links in the description,
and the tweet of the week comes from Chelsea White who
made ideachannelreads.tumblr.com which
collects all the books that we have cited
which is super neat and useful.
Thanks Chels.